With e-learning portal, Delhi University gets tech savvy

NEW DELHI - Keeping pace with GenY, Delhi University (DU) in its new tech-savvy avatar will launch a portal Friday where e-learning material in 12 courses will be uploaded, supplementing classroom learning and making the process more fun.

Thanks to the portal by DU’s Institute of Lifelong Learning (ILLL), with just the click of a mouse, a student will be able to take pre-recorded lectures, go through experiments in virtual labs and listen to a recorded voice read out poems and texts.

Besides e-lessons, e-quizzes, virtual labs and e-lectures - all as per the syllabi of the courses - there will also be animations and other visuals.

A.K. Bakshi, director of ILLL, who developed the portal, said: “There is something called blended learning. There are times when a teacher can’t explain everything on the blackboard. With this initiative of animation and visuals, the understanding of a subject will become clearer.

“Moreover, this is in sync with the present times. Today, if you ask a student to research something, he will, in all possibility, do a Google search on the internet rather than go to the library,” Bakshi told IANS.

The e-learning material will initially be uploaded for subjects like physics, chemistry, life sciences, history, commerce, mathematics, political science, education, computer science, Sanskrit, Hindi and English.

Demonstrating how the portal will work, Bakshi showed how a science student will be able to go through the minute details of carrying out an experiment, understand the science behind each step, analyse the results and note down the reading.

“Even as the animations in the virtual lab carry out the experiment, a recorded voice will explain each step and there will be a scroll going underneath so that even disabled students can benefit from it,” Bakshi said.

“Also, it’s well known that there are a few lecturers whose notes are much sought after. Through this portal, students will be able to see and hear the pre-recorded lectures of some of these teachers. The added advantage is that if they miss something, they can hear the lecture again and again,” he added.

For different subjects there are online quizzes also which have been uploaded. According to Bakshi, 15,000 such multiple choice type questions are already uploaded.

“But unlike other online quizzes, this one will not just give the answers at the end of the exercise but will also tell a student why a particular answer is correct so that there is a thorough understanding of the subject,” he explained.

“The students can also submit their assignments online,” Bakshi added.

While the portal will be initially accessible to only DU students, it will also be partly accessible for outsiders over some time.

So that students can take full advantage of the initiative, ILLL will print booklets explaining the nitty gritty of the portal.

The new academic session in Delhi University, which has around 70 colleges under it, will begin in July.

(Azera Rahman can be contacted at azera.p@ians.in)